Refrigerator extended service - do you buy it?

I bought a Kenmore refrigerator a year ago and the warranty just
expired. I just got an offer in the mail for a service plan that costs
$105/year. Is this worth it? I did have a little problem with my
compressor being off balance and had a tech come in and recenter it a
couple of months ago.

If they are selling it for $105.00 per year they are figuring it is
going to cost them less than $50.00 to service it. In other words if you
put $50.00 in the bank every year, chances are you will come out ahead.
Remember they are professionals at taking your money and not providing you
much service. If it needs work, good chance what ever it is is not covered
or you have a $50.00 deductible on a $65.00 repair.

Or they buy on impulse, standing in line. They should have a lawyer
with them. Once, a point was made here that they won't allow you to
read the warranty standing in line at the cashier.
I tried it after that when I was offered an extended warranty. "Maybe,
let me read it!"
Just the look on the cashier's face was worth it :)
--
Oren
"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

Thanks, I'll have to try that one myself. Anyway, I usually just take
my chances and waive extended warranties and dont even think about it
if the item is under $1000 anyway. Recently a Circuit City employee
told me to make sure I intentionally "break" my Garmin in a couple
years, so I can get a new one free on the warranty, after my wife
insisted we needed the extended warranty. Will I remember to
intentionally "break" my Garmin next year, probably not, so it was a
waste of money. The salesperson suggested I just break a wire inside
the unit, then make the claim, they'll replace it free with the
updated map package.

Your extended warranty should have been arranged at purchase time by
using a Platinum credit card. Most will double the Mfg. warranty up to
one additional year.
Putting the $52.50 into an interest bearing "appliance account" each
year, as recommended earlier, will put you ahead at this point. Use a
high interest account like ING Direct for even further savings.
Rob

I bought a freezer from Sears and just today I got the same kind of mail
pushing service insurance.
What a joke. The insyrance is only good for 3 years max.
The copmpressor is guaranteed for 5 years. So what are they covering for the
3 years?
The hinges and latches maybe.
I thew therir offer away

I was told by the service tech that came to my house to fix my fridge
that the compressors were not covered by the warranty and they are
built only to last 3-5 years and to replace them costs as much as a
new fridge. Planned obsolescence is what he called it. Pretty sad that
I'm going to have to throw away a perfectly good fridge in a couple of
years because Sears needed a way to forecast recurring profits. Does
anyone know of a company that makes replacement compressors for less?
Seems like a good business to start to steal away profits from these
greedy short-sighted corporations.

IMO, the service tech is full of crap. Read the warranty. Most compressors
last well over 10 years. Yes, replacements are expensive and labor is high
for the job as it is time consuming. If you have a cheap fridge, just buy a
new one, but if it is high end, it would pay to replace it.
I did notice that Sears does not publish the warranty on their web site.
They must be hiding something. Damned if I'd buy from them.

I was going to purchase a fridge from Sears, but I wanted the extended
warranty.
The Sears warranties are way overpriced. I got the fridge from Home Depot.
Paid $99 for 5 years for the extended warranty. I figured I could afford
$20/yr.
However, I agree with most of the points made here about the extended
warranties
I bought a Kenmore refrigerator a year ago and the warranty just
expired. I just got an offer in the mail for a service plan that costs
$105/year. Is this worth it? I did have a little problem with my
compressor being off balance and had a tech come in and recenter it a
couple of months ago.

IMHO; no. fridges generally pretty reliable. However we do all our own
repairs except refrigeration and/or a major car engine rebuild.
We have a Kenmore fridge well over 20 years old that has had only one
problem. The defrost timer failed. Replaced it ourselves for about
$35. had to wait a week for Sears to bring in the part.
Am surprised at only one year warranty! If you have bad luck the
fridge may only last another 5 years. Five times $105 = at least half
a new fridge. With good/normal luck you'll get 10 to 15 years out of
it. Say 12 years?
Twelve say times $105 = 1260. Stick $105 a year into a savings account
and at end of twelve years you'll have $1260 plus interest of approx.
$300. Around $1600!
PS. Our fridge was originally 'Harvest Gold' (That will tell you how
old it is!) it's outlasted several stoves. Mostly used ones. We had
fridge repainted white some 20 years ago to match other appliances.
Nowadays we stick with white ones.

Log in

HomeOwnersHub.com is a website for homeowners and building and maintenance pros. It is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.